Saturday, March 25, 2000
Black chamber denies wrongdoing with funds
Group's leaders blame Heimlich
BY ROBERT ANGLEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
African American Chamber of Commerce leaders deny mishandling city money and say Cincinnati officials never gave them a chance to prove how money was spent before freezing funds to one of their programs.
Denying that documents were withheld for three months, chamber officials said Friday they were given only one day to respond to questions about expenses before the city cut them off.
Chamber President Jim Clingman, during a press conference, blamed Councilman Phil Heimlich for the situation, saying the councilman has unfairly targeted black organizations and pushed top city officials into taking action against the chamber.
“We have not misspent or misallocated one cent,” Mr. Clingman said of money given to the chamber for a pilot project to examine multicultural tourism in 1999. “It is unfortunate that it is so easy to cast a negative light on an organization that is doing positive work in the community.”
After distributing $215,000 of a $300,000 contract, city officials said Thursday no more money would be released until the chamber provided detailed financial documents of money spent and returns or explains what is being done with any money it hasn't spent.
The money is for the Tourism-Multicultural Impact Project, which is supposed to generate millions of dollars by
bringing diverse and specialized groups to the region from across the country. Part of that effort is a conference planned in May at the Radisson Cincinnati Hotel, which will include speakers and seminars to, among other things “increase multicultural traffic in your city” and “develop cultural/historical museums and centers.”
Antoinette Selvey-Maddox, acting economic development director, said the city stopped giving money to the chamber for the program in December and has been trying to get detailed financial documents ever since. While Mr. Heimlich asked for detailed documents, she said the decision to cut off funds had already been made.
Hugh Guest, the chamber's chief operating officer, said this wasn't true and said his staff was first contacted by the city Wednesday about getting additional documents.
“All receipts and backup information are available and will be in the hands of economic development as initially promised, by the end of business today,” he said, pointing to a stack of folders and loose papers on a table.
Ms. Selvey-Maddox did not return calls Friday to confirm whether the chamber had delivered any supporting documents.
Chamber representatives claimed not to know about the request for additional documents before Wednesday. But Mr. Heimlich asked city officials to review the chamber's program and provide additional financial documents at a city council committee meeting on March 6.
That same day, chamber bank records show $20,000 was withdrawn from its tourism account. Another $47,660 was withdrawn on March 21, two days before the city released the report calling for a detailed accounting.
Mr. Clingman said Friday that the $20,000 was withdrawn to pay for various expenses for the chamber's May conference. Although bank re cords provided by the city show the $47,660 as a “withdrawal,” Mr. Clingman said no withdrawal was ever made. He said they had written a check to transfer the money to another account, but the next day, March 22, decided not to make the transfer and the funds were put back into the account.
In a reference to Mr. Heimlich's father, who developed the Heimlich maneuver, Mr. Clingman said the councilman is “choking the life out of certain organizations.”
Mr. Heimlich, who was out of town Friday, could not be reached for comment. But on Thursday he said he was concerned about the oversight of city expenditures and said he had lost faith in the city's ability to monitor taxpayer money distributed to non-profit groups. He compared the oversight of the chamber to the oversight given to two neighborhood development groups that are being investigated by federal and local authorities for allegedly misspending city funds.
Mr. Clingman said the comparison was unfair and damaging to the chamber. He would not comment on the city's oversight procedures but maintained the chamber has done nothing wrong.
He said Mr. Heimlich has targeted several African-American organizations and said his efforts eventually could destroy worthwhile programs.
In December, Mr. Clingman was one of four African-American civic and business leaders to demand an investigation of Mr. Heimlich, saying Mr. Heimlich's requests for financial documents are unethical and illegal.
The letterto city council was also signed by John Pace of the Riverfront Classic, Sheila Adams of the Urban League and George Beatty of Genesis Redevelopment — one of the neighborhood groups now being probed by the FBI.
Mr. Heimlich made no excuses then for his inquiries, saying any group that receives public money should have no problem explaining where it was spent.
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